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Antarctic Meteorites

LAP 02205, a Lunar basalt collected from La Paz icefield.

The US funded collection and curation of Antarctic meteorites, or the US Antarctic Meteorite program, is a cooperative effort among NASA, the National Science Foundation (NSF) and ANSMET,
and the Smithsonian Institution (SI). The NSF has decades of experience exploring this harsh environment, and provides support for field research and collection. NASA and the Smithsonian Institution are,
experts in curation of lunar samples and geologic specimens, respectively, and provide for the classification, storage and distribution of Antarctic meteorites
(Cassidy, 2003; Cassidy et al., 1992; Harvey, 2003; Graham and Annexstad, 1989; McCoy et al., 2008; Marvin and Mason, 1980; Allen et al., 2011; Righter et al. 2015; Corrigan et al., 2015; Harvey et al., 2015).
As of 2016, the total number of samples recovered is ~22,000, and JSC curators have sent over 19,000 meteorite samples to roughly 600 scientists worldwide. The collection is among the largest in the world,
and features samples from the Moon, Mars, and asteroids (Fig. 1).

Antarctic meteorite EET 79001 - an 8 kg (17 lb) martian meteorite. Dark fusion crust, created during high speed entry through Earth's atmosphere, covers most of the exterior, and
the light colored basaltic interior is visible where the fusion crust has broken off. Photo taken in the Meteorite Processing Lab at NASA-JSC.